Our Failure Jesus' Perfection
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INTRO
INTRO
“Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
「你們不要以為我來是要廢除律法和先知；我來不是要廢除，而是要完成。我實在告訴你們，就算天地過去，律法的一點一畫也不會廢去，全部都要成就。因此，無論誰廢除誡命中最小的一條，又這樣教導人，他在天國中必稱為最小的；但若有人遵行這些誡命，並且教導人遵行，他在天國中必稱為大。我告訴你們，你們的義若不勝過經學家和法利賽人的義，就必不能進天國。
The Law Points To Jesus
The Law Points To Jesus
“Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.
「你們不要以為我來是要廢除律法和先知；我來不是要廢除，而是要完成。我實在告訴你們，就算天地過去，律法的一點一畫也不會廢去，全部都要成就。
Jesus did not come to abolish the law and the Prophets
What is Jesus saying? Jesus has been accused by others by breaking God’s law. The Pharisees were often known to accuse Jesus of being a law breaker. As Jesus is teaching His disciples about the kingdom of God, He begins to explain that His ministry is not divorced or separated from all of God’s redemptive history.
This is important. Whatever Jesus is ushering in it is not to do away with the Old. This is a side note, but what we find out about Jesus is how highly He viewed the Old Testament. Jesus believed in the Old Testament as the inspired and authoritative Word of God. Today we have pastors and leaders who say that we don’t need the Old Testament, but Jesus is telling us here is that to understand His ministry, you must understand redemptive history in the Old Testament. Church family here is thing I want to challenge you on, let your life be shaped by ALL of Scripture. Not just the Psalms, not just the Gospels, but both the Old and the New. All of Scripture is God breathed and able to equip you.
BUT TO FULFILL Them
Jesus says I did not come to remove or to do away with God’s law. INSTEAD Jesus says I’ve come to fulfill them.
This would have been one of those statements that would have caused everyone’s jaw to drop. This is a serious claim.
When the Bible uses the phrase, Law and the Prophets, that is short for the entire Old Testament.
This word fulfill means to bring it to its completion, to bring it to its proper end.
Jesus is making a serious claim, a claim that ultimately got Him crucified, that He, Jesus of Nazareth is coming to fulfill all that the Old Testament has written.
No other prophet, no other religions teacher has ever claimed what Jesus is claiming here. Where as religious teachers position themselves under God’s law, teaching and making insights and observe God’s law, pointing to God’s law to teach, what Jesus says here, is amazing, because HE says He is not the one pointing to God’s law, but rather ALL OF GOD’S LAW HAS BEEN POINTING TOWARDS HIM.
Every law, every prophet, every promise, every prophecy, is pointing, is promising, Jesus says, HIMSELF. HE is the fulfillment, the answer that all of God’s redemptive history has been waiting on.
Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.
於是他從摩西和眾先知起，把所有關於自己的經文，都給他們解釋明白了。
When we read the Old Testament, we should hear on every page these whispers, these sign posts all pointing at Jesus!
It’s similar to when you go on vacation with your kids. You have a destination where you are going. And you might make a few stops along the way, get some food, see something, but what are your kids in the backseat saying the whole time? “When are we going to get there?” “This is nice, but when are we going to get there?” Church family, Adam, Abraham, Moses, King David, Daniel, Isaiah, are all saying the same things. It’s like they are in the backseat, and they are saying, when are we gonna get to Jesus! When are we gonna get to our destination, where all of history has been heading! Jesus is the greater Adam, Jesus is the greater Moses, The greater King David, He is the perfect priest, prophet, and king, so church family what Jesus says here and what we must understand is that the BIBLE, Scripture is all ABOUT JESUS! It is so easy in our culture to think that the Bible is all about ME. ME . Me.Me. While God does speak to US in the Scriptures, the BIBLE from cover to cover, from story to story is all leading us to the same place: Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus.
How does Jesus fulfill?
When we read the tabernacle we see shadows and symbols of Christ.
Jesus fulfills what the law demands. Jesus brings all of redemptive history to its goal. HIM and His ministry and His kingdom. Church family: the LAW points us to Jesus. Jesus is not a teaching pointing at the law, Jesus is the God Himself whom the law points to.
THE LAW PREPARES US FOR JESUS
THE LAW PREPARES US FOR JESUS
Many years ago I had a coach who always said preparation equals success. What he meant was that the more prepared we are the better we will be when the time of opportunity arises(?)
Commands in the Kingdom
You’ll notice that Jesus begins to make a shift. Before He was speaking about the law in relation to Himself, but now He is going to begin talking about the commands of God in the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
因此，無論誰廢除誡命中最小的一條，又這樣教導人，他在天國中必稱為最小的；但若有人遵行這些誡命，並且教導人遵行，他在天國中必稱為大。
Who does Jesus seem to be talking to here? Disciples. He says: if any of you, both break and teach others to break these commands you will be called “least” or insignificant. But if you both DO AND TEACH others to obey you will be called great.
Let’s consider what Jesus says: HE seems to say that your attitude towards God’s commands will be reflected in your status in the kingdom of heaven. You hold up God’s commands do and teach, you will be honored. IF you dishonor God’s commands, you will be dishonored.
What is Jesus making clear to His disciples and the crowds? Obedience matters . You see in the culture of this day and age, religious leaders would make excuses when it was convenient to break God’s commands. When it fit their need they would do and teach others to break God’s commands. That attitude Jesus rejects here. Friend, if you are watching, I want to make something very clear that Jesus does here: if you believe that because God is a God of grace that you can sin anytime and anywhere you want because you know He will forgive you, the Bible would call you to question if you really are a follower of Jesus. Paul says it this way:
What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
這樣，我們可以說甚麼呢？我們可以常在罪中，叫恩典增多嗎？絕對不可！我們向罪死了的人，怎麼可以仍然活在罪中呢？
The Gospel is a message of grace, it is a message of freedom. But the Gospel does not give us the liberty to sin, but the grace to obey. The Gospel doesn’t give us freedom TO sin, but freedom FROM SIN.
I want this question to weigh on us just for a moment: do you know this Gospel?
But Jesus goes on and says it’s not just about obedience, but it is also about righteousness:
For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
我告訴你們，你們的義若不勝過經學家和法利賽人的義，就必不能進天國。
So now there is a greater danger here: not only will we be dishonored, but there is a fear of being excluded from the kingdom altogether.
Jesus says we need a righteousness that is GREATER, FAR SURPASSES that of the scribes and Pharisees. What was the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes?
Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach.
所以凡他們吩咐你們的，你們都要遵守，但不可效法他們的行為，因為他們只會說而不去作。
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
「虛偽的經學家和法利賽人哪，你們有禍了！你們好像粉飾了的墳墓，外面好看，裡面卻裝滿了死人的骨頭和各樣的污穢；照樣，你們外面看來像義人，裡面卻充塞著虛偽和不法。
An external righteousness. Anyone used to clean their rooms this way? I know I did. Parents asked me to clean my room, I take everything, shove it in the closet, put it under the bed, alright SPOTLESS! The Pharisees not only could not live up to this standard themselves, but they placed it on others. How many of us live this way? This is all the righteousness we have church family. What Jesus is saying about the Pharisees and the scribes, is that while they did good things, they were not good enough. While they might have been good, it was not good enough. The bible says that God looks at your righteous deeds, and all my good works and says they are like dirty, spoiled rags to Him. They might seem good to you, but they are not good enough for Him. You might be listening today, and you think that all Jesus wants from you is to be a good person. You might be thinking that Christianity is just about becoming a better person. And when you die, you will stand in front of Jesus and He will say it was NOT good enough. All your good deeds, all my good intentions, although good, ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
It would be like When I was younger I had saved up money to buy thing thing that I really wanted. I went to the store with all that I had then discovered that the price was actually much higher. What I had simply was NOT ENOUGH. And it is the Grace and mercy of God to tell you, you are NOT ENOUGH. What you have is simply not ENOUGH to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
So here’s a problem. Maybe you are beginning to see it: Jesus draws a line in the sand here and says: To be my disciple, it required both obedience, and a righteousness that you do not have. The question is: why is the standard so high? Why so high Jesus? I thought this was the Gospel of GRACE?! Why does Jesus say the standard is so HIGH? Because THE GOSPEL IS SO GREAT! The standard is so high, because what God does in Jesus on our behalf is SO GREAT!
God in the person of Jesus Christ, lives a perfect life, a life that we could never live. He dots ever i crosses every T. Tempted in every way, lust, greed, pride, despair YET DID NOT Sin. This Jesus, goes to the cross, the perfect God-man who obey God’s law, and He gets crucified and punished in YOUR place, and in mine, AS A LAW BREAKER! SO that by FAITH those who are law-breakers, YOU AND ME, might receive the righteousness of the One who obeyed God’s law perfectly. Because Christ obeyed therefore we can obey.
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
神使那無罪的替我們成為有罪的，使我們在他裡面成為 神的義。
So church family listen to this: on the cross: Jesus both takes something from us: our disobedience, our breaking of God’s commands, our SIN, but He GIFTS something to us: His “fulfilling” His obeying, His righteousness.
So what do you do when you come up short? When you fail? There are some of you here who struggle with Perfectionism? I struggle with that? There is a lie that creeps into our minds that says, we must be perfect, act perfect, perform perfectly. But friends. the only person who has ever lived the Christian life perfectly is Jesus Christ. It is not you, not Paul, not me. So what do you do when you fail? What do you and I do when we realize we’ve come up short? That is a moment of God’s grace. When the Holy Spirit allows us to see our own failures or the failures of others it is not meant to be a moment of condemnation but a moment of ministry. Yet far too often, we run and say I will just do better next time.
There is a story in the Chronicles of Narnia where a girl named Jill sees Aslan for the first time lying down by a stream of water:
“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion. “I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill. “Then drink,” said the Lion. “May I, but would you mind going away while I do?”said Jill. The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. “Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill. “I make no promise,” said the Lion. Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer. “Do you eat girls?” she said. “I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion. “I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. “Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.” “There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
There is no other way we that we obey God’s commands and we enter into the kingdom of heaven, it is not by our obedience, by our own goodness, but by trusting and receiving, it is drinking in the obedience and the goodness of Jesus.
SO WHAT?
SO WHAT?
answer these questions: everyone wants someone to pay: God paid for us(standard). Jesus’ perfection for our failures.
High view of Jesus low view of ourselves.